Journey Across the Wasteland
by Kunzie214
Summary: Basically the same as the main story, but with different dialouge and thoughts to help shake things up a bit. This is gonna be a long one.
1. Chapter 1

_Well, that could have gone better,_ Matt thought, standing over the dead body of his best friend's father, who was also the Overseer. His mind couldn't come up with another solution at the time; his own father, James, one of the brightest minds of the Vault, just left him there, all alone, with the entire facility searching for him now. At first, he thought they might have just wanted to know where his father had gone (to which he had no answer, as he hadn't told him of his departure), but when he learned they had murdered his lab partner, Jonas, a man who had been like an uncle to Matt, he knew they probably didn't just want to "chat."

Throwing away his thoughts for a moment, he grabbed the password to the Overseer's terminal, a code that would allow him to escape to the outside world to search for his missing father. Proceeding to the vault door, he ran into Amata, his best friend, who had witnessed the murder of her father. She was sobbing as Matt tried to comfort her.

"Amata, please… I didn't mean to… he just… he was trying to kill me… you must understand, I-"

"Save it," she cut in sharply. "I don't want to talk to, or hear from you, ever again…" She continued sobbing, walking towards her father's body.

"Amata, listen to me, please…" He thought for a moment, when she turned around to look him, with tears streaming down her face, that she might give him a chance. How wrong he was.

"Just get out of here, before I call the other guards to come and arrest you," she said coldly, and continued walking. Matt hung his head low, and turned to the office, where he found the Overseer's terminal, on and ready to go.

Punching in the code quickly (which was simply 'Amata') he chose to open the Vault door, something which hadn't been done since… ever. With the sirens sounding, lights flashing, and guards closing in, he stepped out into the cool breeze of the underground tunnel, and the Vault door shut behind him.

Armed with his baseball bat and a pistol, he walked down the old pathway, thinking all the while why his father may have left him. _Did I do something wrong? Does he know someone from the outside? Did he just want a bit of fresh air?_ All of these questions came to mind as he thought of his father; a strong-willed, amusing man, not only wise about science, but also wise with his words. Everything Matt knew came from his vast knowledge, and without his presence in his life… well, Matt just didn't know what to do.

He kept walking and came across some radroaches. He whipped out his baseball bat and beat them to a pulp. _God dammit, why does it always have to be radroaches?!_ Angry with himself and the vault dwellers, he continued to beat down on the roaches for several minutes after they were dead. He found himself crying a little, and he put away the bat to wipe the tears from his eyes.

As he approached the final gateway to the outside world, he vowed that no matter how long it took, he would find his father, or at least, what happened to him, and that when he did, he would smack him senseless.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun blinded Matt severely as he stepped out from the cave. He shielded his eyes, reaching into his pocket to put on the shades he found in the vault. He took a good, long look at the landscape surrounding him. A barren wasteland. He had only heard myths of this place ever since he was a small child. Almost exactly how he imagined, the Capital Wasteland stretched out as far as the eye could see, with nothing but destruction and death in sight.

Finding a path down the side of the mountain (the cave entrance was situated near the peak of a small, shallow mountain) Matt walked on in the bright of the first real sunlight his body had ever experienced. At first, he enjoyed the rays of light, after becoming acclimated to the big, yellow ball in the sky. After an hour or so of walking, however, he did not feel the same way; the sun burned his pale skin red hot, and he soon ached from the sores covering most of his arms and legs. He rolled his sleeves back down, and decided that he would rather sweat profusely than be burnt like a piece of toast.

The sun was beginning to set when he arrived in a town called Springfield (as denoted by the sign, claiming "Welcome to Springfield, where all your worries will be forgotten!"). He passed some houses, most of which were half-torn through or worse, leaving little more than the concrete base and some of the framework. He stepped into what used to be the foyer of one home, only to find some old cereal boxes laying on the ground, as well as a broken television, a moth-ridden couch, and the skeleton of the suspected homeowner, at which Matt promptly threw up.

As his retching subsided, he began to notice more of his surroundings, and spotted a school building a little ways down the road. "Springfield Elementary School." He walked up to its doors, surprised at how intact the building was compared to everything else around (it seemed people really valued the safety of the younger generation), with only one major gap in the building's brick structure, opening up to the upper floors of the school. Matt entered through the lower level entrance, hoping to find a place to sleep for the night.

A putrid smell reached his nostrils as he entered the facility; looking up, he saw fresh corpses hanging from chains, all of which had at least one missing limb, and most of which had no head attached. Another round of retching began, and as he bent over, he heard hurried footsteps coming from the door ahead. It opened with a loud crack, and in came two people, each carrying two guns, pointed directly at Matt. He stood up quickly, holding back his gagging, and he raised his hands above his head.

"Please, I mean you no harm!" Matt said quickly in between choked gasps. "I'm sorry for disturbing you… I was just looking for a place to spend the night."

One of the two people, the girl, lowered her weapons to her sides, and looked curiously at Matt. "Hey, Joey, this guy looks like one of them vault dwellers, don't he?"

"Yeah, he sure does, sis," the man called Joey said, also lowering his weapons. "Vault 101, right?"

"Yes, that's the one," Matt replied, gaining more of his composure back. He studied each of them; both had multiple piercings in their ears, with some extra piercings on their faces, mostly on their noses and lips. The man's hair was in long spikes running from his forehead all the way to the top of the back of his neck, in a mohawk fashion. The girl had a double mohawk, all of her hair standing on end near the top of her head, on each side. It reminded Matt of these kinds of lizards he had once studied about, before the bombs were dropped, which had ridges on their heads that looked similar to this girl's hairdo. In all honesty, they looked scarier than any humans Matt had ever encountered, but then again, he had only ever known the people of the vault, and these two people seemed nice enough.

"Well, we have some extra beds lying around here, if you really need to sleep somewhere," the girl said. "By the way, I'm Kelli." She extended a hand, and Matt shook it politely. "That's Joey."

"Pleased to meet both of you," Matt said, shaking Joey's hand as they turned and went further into the school. They passed a few other people who all looked very similar: freaky hair-dos, and piercings galore, wearing very little clothing. They all held some kind of weapon in their hands, whether it be a small gun or a baseball bat, and each smiled with an evil sort of grin at Matt as he walked past them. He tried his best to smile politely at them all, but after a few corridors he was beginning to feel uneasy about the situation he put himself in.

"So, where are you guys going to let me sleep again? Like, how much further do we have to walk?" he asked, and the two turned around, with that same look on their face. Both looked completely mental and about ready to explode with glee as Kelli spoke softly.

"You see, we're gonna take you to a place where you won't _ever_ have to wake up." Matt heard as guns all around him loading up, and turning back he saw many of the people he had passed with guns pointed directly at him. Kelli and Joey had pulled out their guns as well, and pointed each at his chest. "Now, doesn't that sound like a great deal? You get to sleep for the rest of eternity, and we'll keep your stuff safe for you, free of charge!"

Matt calmly put his hand to his side holster, and said, "You know, I really don't think that's the right deal for me. I think I'll just get out of your way now…"

"You're not going anywhere, punk," Joey said, and his finger began pulling on the trigger. Matt, realizing the danger he was in, immediately ducked as Joey took the shot. It missed Matt's head by mere millimeters, and hit one of the other men directly between his eyes. The man's gun went off as he fell, extremely dead. The chain of events following could only be described as a chaotic turn of events for the young adventurer.

Everyone in the vicinity started shooting their guns at each other, and most of the bullets ended up in Joey's chest. During the mayhem, Matt silently escaped, crawling on the floor to a crack in the wall, and coming out in a separate hallway on the other side. He heard muffled shouts coming from the crack.

"OUCH- why you little sonuva…" Kelli's shrieks pierced even the pings of the bullets hitting walls or the bangs of the guns exploding furiously. "HOLD YOUR FIRE, DAMMIT! I'M HIT, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! Ah shit… Joey…" The firing ceased, and after a moment of silence, Matt heard her scream, "WHERE IS THAT LITTLE BASTARD?!? I WANT HIM FOUND, NOW! BRING HIM BACK ALIVE, I'M GONNA BE THE ONE TO KILL HIS SORRY ASS!!!"

Matt moved quickly down the hallway, returning eventually to one of the corridors he had travelled down before. Remembering the way, he began creeping around every corner, watching his back, and slowly making his way out in one piece; at least, he hoped so.

After several minutes of sneaking (and knocking one of the men out cold with his baseball bat) he reached his destination: the exit. As he reached for the handle, he heard Kelli scream once more, "HE'S HEADED FOR THE EXIT!"

Matt pushed open the door with all his strength, running as fast as he could out the door. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his upper arm; a bullet had pierced his bicep. He looked back and saw Kelli staring at him, with bloodshot eyes and a gun pointed at his head, and she said, "Found you, you little bitch. I'm gonna blow your fucking brains out!"

Matt didn't stick around much longer, feeling the air from another bullet rush past his ear as he clutched his arm and ran as fast as he could out in the wasteland. Finding a nice rock to hide behind, he sat down wincing, and he waited with bated breath, hoping that they hadn't seen him get around it. After a few seconds, he heard the door open again, some muffled footsteps, and then:

"YOU'RE DEAD, YOU HEAR ME BOY?!?" an angry Kelli shouted. "YOU BETTER FUCKING RUN, BECAUSE IF I EVER SEE YOU NEAR HERE AGAIN, MARK MY WORDS, THE BARREL OF MY GUN IS GONNA BE THE LAST THING YOU EVER SEE!" and with that, the door opened, and slammed once more in the cold, dark night.

Matt, still shaken up beyond immediate repair, stood up slowly, checking back toward the school for any sign of the evil woman that had shot him. With no threat in sight, he turned his back and began walking in the complete opposite direction, not stopping for anything. Luckily, nothing came across his path as he continued on well into the night. Soon enough, after his fear had worn off a bit, he began to feel the full force of the pain in his arm; it hurt more than all the other pain he had felt in his life combined. _Jesus, why couldn't the adrenaline have kept me in a daze until after I had found a doctor?! Lord only knows when I'll come across a doctor, or better yet, a civilized city where people aren't going to try to kill me if I ask for a bed…_

Just as he thought this, up ahead he saw a large metal structure, in the shape of a gate. Made from what appeared to be the aluminum siding from a warehouse, and chain link fence, it looked like Matt had found a city; a real city, made from the ruins of a destroyed country, with its own defense from the danger the world brought.

_Not much I can tell about the people, for now,_ he thought as he crept closer to the front gate. When he was barely twenty feet away, he noticed a robot, standing there, silently keeping watch in the night. It had noticed Matt, but before he had the chance to duck and run, it said to him, "Welcome to Megaton!" in the most pleasant voice a robot was able to make. He looked it up and down carefully, but did not find any reason to fear it. He stood up straight again, as the sun began to rise over the horizon.

"Hmmm, guess a city with a greeting robot can't be all bad," he said aloud softly, and the gate opened in front of him.


	3. AN

Dear wonderful readers,

I'm extremely sorry I didn't update this. I forgot about this site, actually. And I might not get back into this, because college is finally starting soon.

I'm going to put this as completed for now, because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Just thought I'd let you know.

I really would like to get back into this. Someday, maybe.

Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

…well, me.


End file.
